Windfalls on Thailand seen from US-China trade war

BANGKOK, September 19 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce sees a new round of trade war between the United States and China will provide more rooms for Thai exporters to ship their products to the US and the Chinese markets. Pimchanok Vonkorpon, Director-General of the ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), told journalists of the positive prospect on Wednesday, following Washington's announcement earlier this week on its new trade measure against Beijing, under which additional 5,745 items of Chinese products imported to the US market, totally worth about 200 billion US dollars, will be each imposed a 10-per cent tariff as of September 24, 2018 and the import tariff against the Chinese products will be further increased to 25 per cent as of January 1, 2019. The TPSO chief foresaw that Beijing should retaliate by imposing tariffs of 5-25 per cent on 5,207 items of US products to be imported to the immense Chinese market soon, totally worth about 60 billion US dollars, as it has threatened. The TPSO chief pointed out that the US-China trade war should provide a good opportunity, at least for a certain period of time, for Thai exporters to ship their products to the US market as the substitution to the same items of Chinese goods. According to the TPSO chief, the products include smoked natural rubber sheets, rubber blocks, polished grains, dried beans, cashew nut, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen and processed banana, coconut, guava, mango, mangosteen, papaya and pineapple. Besides, more rooms in the US market should be for Thai exporters of varieties of frozen and processed fish, namely tuna, as well as naturally-extracted honey, other processed food items and non-alcohol beverages, pet feeds, chemical products, plastic pellets and automobiles, parts and accessories. The TPSO chief suggested, on the other hand, that Thai exporters increase their shipments of such potential products as polished grains, rubber blocks, coconut, guava, mango, mangosteen, naturally-extracted honey, citric acid and internal combustion engines to the immense Chinese market as the substitution to the same items of US goods. (TNA)